Worth repeating

September 03, 2006

A few unsettling issues remain after the Aug. 20 pit bull attack on a South Bend woman. For us, perhaps the most disturbing is the authorities' failure to remove the dog from the home immediately after the attack. The dog and another dog in the house were removed the next day. This omission is especially troubling, given the confusion that surrounds the incident. According to an Aug. 28 Tribune story by staff writer Alicia Gallegos, officials were unclear on how the attack happened and the role the dog's owner played in it. The incident serves as a reminder of the importance of enforcing South Bend's dangerous dog ordinance. Unfortunately, this is the second such reminder in the span of a few weeks. After the Aug. 7 attack by a pit bull mix on 8-year-old J'Aunnia Jackson, we noted the importance of police and city officials keeping an eye out for dangerous dogs and requiring residents who choose to own them to comply with the law. We don't want to sound like a broken record, but given that two attacks have occurred in less than one month, we think it's worth repeating: The public needs to be protected from dangerous dogs and the ordinance to do that needs strong enforcement to be effective.